Local women pair to open Evans bar and grill

Barb Solivais, left, and Deb Nelson, owners of Lit'l Bit Bar & Grill, stand in front of the limousine they use at their Evans bar. They are using the limo to give customers a free ride home from their bar on the weekends if they're concerned about drinking and driving.

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It took two years for Deb Nelson and Barb Solivais to come up with a Lit’l Bit more than the typical bar on the street corner.

While Solivais spent her last two of her eight years managing Shorty’s Bar and Grill in leased space in Evans, the pair came up with a business plan for another concept.

Together, they came up with Lit’l Bit Bar & Grill, which they could own together at 3620 35th Ave. in Evans.

“The whole thing about being successful is moving that customer base,” Nelson said of why Shorty’s stayed open so long. “People are creatures of habit. If you’re closed for too long, they’ll go someplace else.”

They bought three units in the strip center at 35th Avenue and 37th Street in Evans to house their restaurant, fully stocked bar, dance floor and game room, in the area that was previously Giuseppe’s Ristorante Italiano and Coraggio’s before that.

The women have been best friends for several years. Nelson, 54, worked at Hewlett-Packard for 27 years and was laid off; Solivais, 51, spent 10 years prior to Shorty’s as the main dental hygienist for the late Dr. Angel Gomez.

They developed a business plan that became several inches thick — their bible — and they got a Small Business Administration loan — landing their space in June. It took until October to open the doors, just four days after Solivais closed Shorty’s.

That way, they could take her customer base with them, to lure not only the lunch, after-dinner and weekend sporting crowds, but some pool and dart leagues.

“It was a lot of hard work,” Solivais said.

From friends and family pitching in to knock down walls and build and refurbish the units, a lot of people helped.

“What we keep saying is, ‘It took a village,’” Nelson said.

Their name was the best part. Hashing it out, they realized how often they say, “little bit” every day, and it just fell from there.

And they think they’ve got a good hook to get people in the door — the limo. The 1985 Lincoln Town Car limousine runs from 9 p.m.-1 a.m. on weekends only, taking people home (locally) for free.

“Unfortunately, people don’t go out as much anymore because of taking the risk of getting a DUI,” Nelson said. “We thought this would help people come out without the risk. … It’s just a little added bonus so they don’t have to worry about having two beers and getting behind the wheel.”

Their driver is a volunteer and a 20-year-old college student, so he’s guaranteed to be sober, the pair added.

They also are proud to have repurposed the old bleachers from Greeley West High School into their bar.

The pair has doubled their employees from nine at Shorty’s to 18 now. Most of the employees from Shorty’s, Solivais said, reapplied to Lit’l Bit.

The women pride themselves on offering not only a great gaming experience for their league players and a good Broncos Sunday or a charbroiled burger lunch for their regulars, but an easy-going place in which women feel comfortable coming at night.

“The ladies that are coming in have said this is a place they feel comfortable coming by themselves,” Nelson said.

They plan to offer activities for women at the bar, as well, such as jewelry sales nights and the like. Eventually, they hope to branch into bartender training.

They recently were asked to open their concept in Windsor, Solivais said.

“Since we are only three months old, we asked them to hold on and let us get everything in order to take care of here,” Solivais said. “We’re still tweaking. We need a little more time before can move on.”